Can Long Branch head coach Dan George motivate his football team to win the championship game?
Brian Johnston

PISCATAWAY - Long Branch won its first NJSIAA sectional championship since 1999 in a game they will be talking about forever when it comes to the history of the NJSIAA football playoffs.

Senior quarterback Juwan Wilkins hit a wide-open Elijah Sherin in the right flat and Sherin, a senior fullback, raced into the end zone for a two-point conversion to give Long Branch a dramatic and wild 43-42 overtime win over Freehold Saturday night in an instant classic of a NJSIAA Central Group IV championship game at Rutgers University's High Point Solutions Stadium.

The win and the way Long Branch won was the perfect climax to a season in which it returned to prominence after it had gone 5-15 combined over the previous two seasons.

``What it (the sectional title) says is that football in Long Branch is alive and well,'' said an overjoyed Long Branch coach Dan George, who coached Long Branch to the 1999 Central Group III championship in his first season as head coach at his scholastic alma mater. "We’re doing the right things, We’re winning football games. Now we’re winning championships. Continue to believe in us and we’ll believe in you.

``It’s what football, high school sports and education are all about. It’s resilience. It’s about believing and making a commitment and having the discipline to stay with it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. Buying in week-in and week-out regardless of some of the disappointments we’ve had. Our best three football games were our three playoff games.’’

``It feels amazing, it really does. Overcoming adversity in the way that we did. I’m so proud of us, I really am,'' said Long Branch senior defensive end/tight end Kaymar Mimes.

Freehold vs Long Branch NJSIAA state championship football. Elijah Sherin reacts after catching a catch in the end zone for the game winning two point conversion.
Piscataway, NJ
Saturday, December 2, 2017
@dhoodhood
Doug Hood

Freehold vs Long Branch NJSIAA state championship football. Long Branch's Kaymar Mimes stretches out to score a touchdown in the second half.
Piscataway, NJ
Saturday, December 2, 2017
@dhoodhood
Doug Hood

When Sherin crossed the goal-line, the Long Branch players and coaches raced out on to the field to begin celebrating the school third sectional championship.

``It was a play we put in this week, a rub route, said George, about the winning play. "The outside guy, which is TJ (wide receiver T.J. Fosque) goes off on a fade which they got on, so the two inside guys come down on that and we take our back out of the backfield and stick it to them.''

Freehold had taken a 42-35 lead when Ashante Worthy powered in from the 6 to cap its possession in the first overtime period. Jake Hurler followed with the extra point.

The TD capped a sensational performance by Worthy, a senior quarterback. It was the sixth rushing TD of the game for Worthy.

The performance closed a remarkable, record-breaking season for Worthy.

He rushed for 271 yards on 39 carries to set the modern-day state single-season rushing record with 2,860 yards. University of Wisconsin freshman Jonathan Taylor set the former record of 2,815 yards last year when he was a senior at Salem High School in South Jersey..

Worthy also threw for 141 yards for 412 yards of total offense. He finished the season with 2,106 yards passing to become the first player in state history to rush and pass for more than 2,000 yards in a season, according to Chuck Langerman of South Jersey Magazine.

He finished the season with 4,966 yards of total offense and accounted for a state single-season record 61 TDs - 41 rushing and 20 passing.

Worthy finished his career with 6,400 yards rushing - second on the Shore Conference's all-time list for yards in a career - behind 2004 Keyport graduate Ken Cattouse. Former Middletown South star Knowshon Moreno is third on the all-time Shore Conference list with 6,264 yards.

Wilkins threw for 260 yards and three TDs. He also had a TD on a sneak.

Long Branch sophomore tailback Jermaine Corbett ran for 152 yards and two TDs.

The two teams combined for 869 yards of total offense - 463 by Long Branch.

Long Branch, which trailed 35-21 after Worthy's 29-yard TD run with 3:15 left in the third quarter, overcame four lost fumbles. Three of those fumbles led to Worthy TDs.

Wilkins' 1-yard sneak and Paul Montague's extra point tied the game 35-35 with 1:00 left.

``One of the things we said at the beginning the pregame speech, we talked about how we needed to stay positive,'' said George, about Long Branch's comeback from the two TD deficit. "When you play a team like this (Freehold) some things are going to happen. Some things are going to go wrong.

"You can’t get down on yourself No. 1, and your teammates No. 2, whether it’s on the bench on the field. We didn’t panic. We had some great looks early on the game running the ball and then we went to what this offense does best – throw the ball.''

``I told our guys to stay calm, stay cool, we’ve overcome adversity, let’s stay strong and finish it,'' Wilkins said. ``We had our heads down, but we picked them up. We had a talk with them and we came out with the win.’’

The Willkins' TD capped an 11-play, 71-yard drive that began when junior tackle Kevin Cerruti dropped Worthy for a 1-yard loss on a fourth-and-5 from the Long Branch 28.

The drive was aided by three pass interference penalties on Freehold, which was penaliized 12 times for 83 yards in the game.

The Green Wave had a chance to win it in regulation when it drove from its 41 to the Freehold 17 after a Marc Dennis interception with 25 seconds left.

However, a Montague field goal attempt from 34 yards with three seconds left, was low and wide to the left.

Long Branch had closed to within 35-28 when Wilkins hit a wide-open Mimes over the middle with a 12-yard TD pass on the second play of the fourth quarter. That concluded a nine-play, 77-yard drive.

Worthy TD runs of 22 and 29 yards in which he powered through the Long Branch defense had given Freehold (8-4), which was seeking its first sectional championship since 2010 and third overall a 35-21 lead.

Worthy's other TD runs were 1, 6 and 4 yards in the first half.

A wild first half produced a 21-21 halftime tie.

Long Branch tied the game on the last play of the half when Wilkins hit a wide-open Matt Clark with a 22-yard TD pass.

The TD came three plays later after Wiklins had connected with T.J Fosque for 8 yards and a first down at the Freehold 35 on a fourth-and-6 with 15 seconds left.

CLOSE

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Freehold quarterback Ashante Worthy is shown running during the first half of the NJSIAA Central Group IV championship game Saturday at Rutgers University's High Point Solutions Stadium.(Photo: DOUG HOOD/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

Corbett ran for Long Branch's first two TDs.

Worthy had given Freehold a 21-14 lead when he powered in from the 4 two plays after Matt Krauss recovered a fumble at the Long Branch 9. It was Krauss' second fumble recovery.

Krauss' first fumble recovery set up Worthy's game-tying 6-yard TD run in which he took off on a scramble to the left and leaped over a defender from the 2 and landed in the end zone. to conclude a nine-play, 53-yard drive.

That TD run came two plays after Worthy had broken the Shore Conference single-season rushing record with a 20-yard run to the Long Branch 8.

Corbett had given Long Branch a 14-7 lead with a 29-yard TD run on a counter play to the left. The TD run came three plays after he began a four-play, 86-yard drive with a 31-yard run.

The first TD by Corbett - a 2-yard run - closed a 12-play, 59-yard drive and tied the game 7-7.

Worthy had given Freehold the early lead with a 1-yard TD run. He set the TD up with a dazzling 31-yard run to the 2.